October books to open and digest

Book clubs are gearing up for another year. It is an enormous compliment to hear from so many of you that your club has chosen books from this column. Thank you for sharing that with me. Did you see The New York Times article by Margaret Renkl about the joy of finding people who love the same books you do? Worth a read.

 

Starting us out are two nonfiction books. “The Facemaker” by Lindsay Fitzharris. This is a fascinating story of facial reconstruction surgery which was pioneered by Dr. Harold Gillies during World War I. The author explains the technical aspect superbly, but also tells the poignant backstories to the men involved. The impact of the reconstruction efforts enabled many of them to have normal lives. Fitzharris also wrote “The Butchering Art,” an excellent history of general surgery most of which took place in Great Britain. 

 

“The Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden” by Zhuging Li is the fascinating story of the author’s two aunts who were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War. One just happened to be in Taiwan and chose to stay, the other was a physician and became a member of the Communist Party, eventually sent for “re-education” for perceived lack of loyalty. Each was highly successful and influential in their own career. The politics of China and Taiwan were and remain complex, but the brutality and inanity of the Communist regime is on full display here.

 

In the fiction group, “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy” by Jamie Ford centers on Chinese culture and its generational influence on one family. Ford is the author of “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” which I enjoyed.

 

“Confidence” is another rollicking mystery/heist caper from Denise Mina (“Conviction” was an earlier book with the same two main characters). A fast moving, fun read.

 

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin is really about friendships, lovers, family, and passions, but set in the context of video game developers. I care not about the video games but her characters are real, complicated people who grapple with universal problems.

 

“Carrie Soto is Back” by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the story of a retired tennis player who makes an attempt to come back to defend her record. Tennis players will love this one, but non-players will appreciate it as well. Reid is a popular author – “Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising” – and she always tells a good story.

 

“The Sweet Goodbye” by Ron Corbett follows undercover FBI agent Danny Barrett on assignment in Maine. Loads of cash being laundered in a small town tied to a logging operation and a few dead bodies. Nice twist to the ending. I expect we will see more situations for Agent Barrett in the future.

 

“The House Across the Lake” by Riley Segar. Another “Girl On the Train” scenario – seeing something and interpreting it without all the information. This is a well-paced read, but has a supernatural element that I did not expect. Still a decent story and a suspenseful read with contemporary references and characters, and social commentary.

 

“Aurora” by David Koepp is a really engaging work about a worldwide electrical outage after an astrological catastrophe. Centered on a brother and sister and their different approaches to coping. Shamelessly skewers billionaires with survival plans. This book is so good that Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) is making a movie from it.

 

“Lessons” by Ian McEwan. From the author of “Atonement,” one man’s life and his coming to terms with past traumas, historic events and his own decisions. This would be good for book club discussion. Not a cheerful read, but a thought-provoking one.

 

“The Means” by Amy Fusselman. A stay-at-home-mom who is obsessed with building a summer house in the Hamptons. So very much to make fun of in this contemporary tale of material envy, HOAs, and exceeding a budget.  

 

For more reads, visit beckysbookclub.com.